Archive for July, 2011

My body is vibrating. I am not angry, nor vexed. I am seething. Fingers trembling, heart jolting, blood pumping. Eyes water and fingers tingle. Overdrive. I hear a hollow sound in my eyes, like a deep breath on a cold winters day. Today is about disharmony, destruction of nature and the obliteration of all things elegant. Foot stomping, Hell raising turmoil. I create my state. I shift my body position, my facial expression and my pattern of thoughts. This meta-state that I enter into is required at this second. I’m going to the gym.

Like this:

Strangely indifferent. When Mister. P., came over for some training yesterday, he mentioned that a Wing Chun Gung-Fu class had opened up close to where I was. It took me only a short while to establish where this school was. They charge $200 per month for classes consisting of upto 10 students. I teach for FREE and PRIVATELY, which means people get good, quickly, but it also means I can be choosy about who I teach.

Strangely indifferent. Sach told me how he had murked someone who had been training in Wing Chun for a couple of years. Sach is my cousin and should be described as an intermittent training partner at the most, considering 6000 miles seperate us. We train for the odd week that we spend together every couple of years.

Strangely indifferent. Dax has moved on. He had talent in Wing Chun when he trained with me in UK. But, his interest has shifted onto other things. Understandable. Life gets in the way.

I have 4 students at the time of writing this. They all work in the fields of policing, corrections or security. They all make me proud because they are good people.

Like this:

Worked finished at 6pm. Alexander McQueen tie, untied. Black suit off, Hayabusa shorts on. Rotations with Mister. P. working forward pressure. Straight punching on pad. Counters against grab and pull using elbow and palm. Drop step kick. Kick and punch. Big punch with lead leg. Psychology of submission Vs. domination in street encounters. Flanking and the role of rehearsal when attacking opponents using group formation. Use of fence as sleight of hand.

Drank glass of Ribena.

Then off to gym. Pulls ups; single rep max with 135 lbs. *note to self, must increase weight. Skipping and 3 medium paced sprints to cool down. Protein shake downed.

Where’s my pillow? Rest. Sleep. Work tomorrow. More training to be done.

Like this:

I first discovered the use of deception in street confrontations after reading one of Geoff Thompson’s books. (*This is a lie, I first discovered the use of deception aged 15, when I was mugged in the street by three thugs). Thompson wrote about how a mugger would try to deceive and distract you by, for example, asking questions such as “got the time mate” or “can you lend ‘us a pound?” as a means to;

a) read the body language of a would be victim, and;
b) distract the focus of the victim to allow the mugging to proceed, suddenly and violently.

What struck me was the notion that an attacker is rarely carrying out an attack without ‘priors’. In fact, the guys that are lurking on the streets, behind lamposts tend to be ones who have mugged, hurt and raped their way through numerous encounters. Not only are they products of their environment, but they are also masters at reading body language, deceiving victims and appearing nondescript.

To understand the topic better, I spent a considerable amount of time researching the art of deception, which included pouring over books on street magic.

It was however, watching Jesse Glover teach his Non-Classical Gung Fu that allowed me to put the various pieces of the puzzle of together. Jesse is masterful at being able to appear non-threatening immediately preceeding one of his full out attacks. His ability to appear calm and restrained is superb. And, his ability to move from a casual position to an attack, whilst minimising any telegraph is astounding.

Attackers are master magicians at employing diversionary tactics to deceive a victim. Perhaps we as fighters, Gung Fu men, and martial artists should do more at countering such tactics and employing our own stratagem for deceiving these would-be attackers. This is just another aspect of ‘my game’ that I am continuing to improve daily.